I remember: The choice is yours

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By Doris Schroeder

They say it’s “Choice, not chance that determines destiny.” We are constantly bombarded with choosing in our life. You even have the choice whether or not to read this column or lay it aside to (1) read later, (2) watch TV instead, (3) throw it away.  The trouble is, if you throw it away you may (1) always wonder if you should have read it, (2) wonder if you made the wrong choice.

If you decided to watch TV, you will find so many commercials that you must choose to believe or not, you will actually get dizzy.  In fact, the actual television itself has so many choices; you will find yourself in a tizzy.  There are old TVs, digital ones, ones with VCR (practically outdated) and digital, plasma ones, flat screen, giant screen. There are mini ones and even ones to go with cellular phones and computers., etc.

Should you opt to go shopping for an item at such a place as Wal-Mart, you will have to choose from at least 116,000 items.  If your chooser was running on batteries, you would have to recharge it many times.  Likewise with a digital camera.  They are really wonderful but you either choose to (1) make the pictures yourself and buy the cartridges or (2) take them to the store and stand at the machine while you (1) decide which ones you want and (2) clarify them.  When you have a lot of pictures, the person in back of you must either (1) choose to wait or (2) shop for a half-hour while you tie up the machine.

A quick run to the grocery store is next to impossible.  Let’s say you need a loaf of bread and a quart of milk.  The strategic planners have made it impossible.  To get to the milk in the back of the store, you have to pass by the snack counter with huge signs of hungry people lapping up mouth watering snacks.  When you make it to the milk, again your choice is whole, 2%, 1%, skim or low fat.

Likewise with the bread counter.  What do you think surrounds the plain old bread?  Bakery goods that can crack anyone’s resistance…gooey rolls, nutty rolls, fruit rolls, FRESH doughnuts, creme filled doughnuts, etc.  Then you get to the bread and your choice continues: white, wheat, cracked wheat,  light wheat, oatmeal, seven grains, rye…the list goes on and on.

Even going to a “fast food” place requires decisions. Do you want the single, combo or do you want to “super size” it? Do you want a double, triple or a single? burger with onion, pickle, mustard, catsup, lettuce, dressing, etc. or just an old fashioned burger? Do you want french fries with that or sugar free gelatin? For your soft drink, do you want diet or regular, cherry or plain, with caffeine or without. Even a cup of coffee is full of choices anymore.

If you live in America like we do, you get to decide which political party you want to belong to and if our allegiance lies with our country as a whole or if you will waste time bashing the other party.

Of course there are many decisions that carry consequences with them. If you decide to get up in the morning, you must decide whether to make the day count or if you want to waste it.  The trouble is, God gives us only a certain amount of time to live and if you waste it, it is gone and there is nothing you can do to get it back.

When you are in grade school, you can hardly wait until you are grown up and can make your own decisions. In high school, you spend a lot of time deciding what college you want to attend.  In college, you need to know what classes you will take and what it is you want to become.  Then you have to decide whom you would like to marry, where you are going to live and how many children you are going to have. Of course, along with that, you need to decide on your life’s vocation.

Of course, after that you need to help your children decide and start the whole process of decisions all over again, it never stops!

It makes you wonder, how do you handle all the choices you are required to make and how in the world do you do it intelligently? It really calls for a little help and it is not a “do it yourselfer” piece of mentality, in spite of what some people think.

If you want to know how something works, you read the rules, right?  What then, gets us in trouble?  We try to put life together with our own intellect.

God, who created us, gave us a book of instructions that is really pretty clear. The instructions for life are written in the Bible and all you have to do is follow them! If you don’t understand, there are people to ask who would be delighted to explain. God has made it simple to choose the right things.

The only thing is…YOU are the one who has to choose!

Remember that you can’t go anywhere by straddling a fence! Besides, you chose to read this column!

Doris welcomes your comments and can be reached at [email protected]

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